OVERSEAS GOVERNMENTS

We are aware that most governments have specific visa policies for:

incoming international students
incoming short term or long term contract workers including work/study programs
tourists
interns and volunteers

We are also aware that nearly all overseas governments ask visa applicants to provide their `criminal history’ on the visa application form.

America has many committed, hard working, well intentioned and law-abiding people managing the criminal justice system; however, we continue to deal with issues related to:

an extremely high arrest and incarceration rate than any other western country in the world which means we arrest more people and generally those from lower socio economic backgrounds for non violent crimes
power and prejudice
an abuse of power by people in authority - (false arrests, wrong charges with higher jail terms forcing many to accept plea deals, wrongful convictions, etc.)
lack of community and family involvement in the judicial process
zero tolerance and its consequences
lack of appropriate and external oversight on the judiciary

The most worrying trend in our judicial process is the increase in arrests, sometimes for the wrong charges and even those that are not convicted or where charges are dropped, can suffer the long term consequences of lack of opportunities with jobs, housing and sometimes even access to academic institutions. All because of arrest records! Furthermore, of the large numbers of people that accept plea deals (sometimes known as "no contest" or non-convictions), many do so in return for lighter sentences or because they do not want to be roped in for the wrong crime in front of a jury and they see a travesty of justice follow them with many years in jail. So they opt to get out of the system fast with a plea deal. In many cases, those that are young or come from lower socio-economic backgrounds are terrified about being in the criminal justice system and sometimes when they are told that they are being charged with some serious crimes (even if they have not committed the particular crime) will accept a plea deal because they are told they will languish in jail for years due to the high level charged levied on them. Often where there is mental illness, alcoholism and drug use, instead of rehabilitation in the true sense, the current system believes any infraction of the law leads to an arrest (which means a lifetime of punishment through lost opportunities). We therefore, do admit to having problems with the criminal justice system.

Added to the dilemma of a high rate of arrests and incarceration, is the reality that in the American system there are more of America’s poor that get caught up in the criminal justice system. The wealthy can usually navigate the system better and have the required resources to get good lawyers and fight their charges.

REFERENCE
"The disparate impact of our criminal justice system on racial and ethnic minorities raises serious questions about the way law enforcement officials, prosecutors, courts, and juries go about their jobs. Whatever their cause, racial disparities are stark throughout the system. At current levels of incarceration, for example, newborn black males have a greater than 1-in-4 chance of serving prison time, while Latinos have a 1-in-6 chance and whites 1-in-23."
"Racial Profiling" produced by the Police Assessment Resource Center. A full copy of the report is at http://www.vera.org/publication_pdf/162_249.pdf
If the link is broken go to www.vera.org

A search on the internet under "integrity justice"or "wrongful convictions" or "law society integrity in justice issues" will provide plenty of information about issues that are prevalent in the US justice system. It may also be appropriate to look up the web site for the Innocence Project and Amnesty International USA.

Overall, however, we are not advocating for any support or intervention from any foreign governments in the US criminal justice system. This remains an internal problem for Americans to solve but it will take time and plenty of dialogue amongst our citizenry. In the meantime however, we have many people, particularly young people who need to have access to opportunities to go abroad for work, study, travel, internships and volunteering. If they have been through some traumatic experiences in our justice system whether deserving or not, they still deserve an opportunity to move on with their lives particularly if they were not involved in any violent crime. This is also important for those that should not have been arrested in the first place. We do have a social responsibility to continue to provide opportunities to this group of people.

We ask overseas governments to request additional information on criminal cases, seek letters of support/references and listen to the applicant’s story instead of rejecting a visa application purely on the basis of an arrest record from the US! Remember many of these people would not have been arrested for the non-violent, minor infraction had they been living in your country. It is important that you compare these cases with your local situation and then provide an opportunity for American citizens and residents to get visas to travel to your country temporarily.